Just a thought, are you running it from a short cut with things listed after the EXE, or maybe even just spaces in the command line? If so they are maybe being interpreted as command line options. I do vaguely remember getting something like this myself years ago. I don't use WinDEU anymore.

I know that simply clicking on the exe starts the prog without much difficulty, but there is a little start up message that you are supposed to be able to disable with a line in the ini, but this seems bust and it cannot be disabled.

Hmmm, maybe look inside your ini and see if there are any options in there that could be causing a problem. Like I said I have had the problem, and I used to muck about with the ini file too.

Whatever, I found every version of WinDEU beyond 5.24 unstable and less friendly to use than 5.24 (including 5.25). The biggest problem with 5.24 being that it doesn't have all the doom2 items coded into it (the new lamps were missed out if I remember). So I used to edit stuff in 5.24, then fire up something else to put in those missing items. Whatever, that's all in the past for me. I find using DeePsea far more satisfying these days.

As far as editor features go, yes there are obviously different interfaces. More powerful - depends what you mean I suppose. Ultimately they all allow you to create the end product of a doom map. You may consider "power" to be the ability to chose a variety of different ways of drawing, or the ability to add prefab structures, or the abilty to set default textures for adding new levels or whatever. And yes, different editors certainly have different ways of allowing you to create all those lindefs and sectors that we know and love as doom levels.

In addition, creating a doom level is often more than just making a map. You may want to add new sounds or graphics or other things that affect the game. Some editors may include integrated tools to do this, others won't and you will need additional tools instead.

As I said, my editor of choice is DeePsea. I find it is very "powerful" offering, as it does, a very stable environment. It allows you to do anything required to make a doom map, and will often allow more than one way of doing most tasks. It also has the most comprehensive set of wad manipulation and editing tools to be found in any one package. I don't remember the last time I needed to use any additional doom specific tools to create a doom wad. It is also bang up to the minute seeing as how it is still under constant developement, and so supports the latest features of all the doom ports.

It is a shareware product. The limitation on the SW version is that you can only save maps below a certain size. All the other features (and there are many) are fully working. The newest version can be DL'd at http://www.sbsoftware.com/

You should be aware, however, that which editor to use is often a hotly debated issue with people getting very protective about their choices, and having strong opinions as to whether having to pay for a doom editor is justified or not. So this thread is likely to fill up with such a debate.

For me, DeePsea is a great editor. I don't mind paying to get the best tool for the job, and IMO, that's exactly what it is.

I'll let other people recommend their choices. They will be more qualified to say why they like them than me.

BB - have you tried the last released version of WinDEU (v5.99b)? It's available on the utilities area of DW.

The only problem i experience with it is the occasional crash with massive amounts of extra textures - tho you can get around this by simply typing the texture/flat name instead of browsing for it in the gallery.